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BORIS Johnson has appeared to have achieved the impossible by taking back Labour heartlands as early general elections polls today revealed voting intentions for the north west of England have shifted to Tory paving the way for a landslide win thanks to support from the south and the Midlands. Pollster YouGov showed Labour support is collapsing in the north, with prominent industrial counties - some of which that have voted Labour for decades - Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside now jumping ship to Tory in a spectacular show of support for the Brexiteer Prime Minister. The poll shows...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that with his House of Commons majority, he will deliver Brexit by January 31st, 2020. With just two constituencies left to call, the Conservative Party will have between a 78- and 80-seat majority in the House of Commons, giving the party its biggest majority since Margaret Thatcher was reelected in 1987. Meanwhile, Labour has had its worst election result since 1935. In his victory speech from Westminster on Friday morning, the prime minister said in his characteristic verbosity and humour: “We did it. We pulled it off, we broke the deadlock, we ended the...

Outgoing House of Commons Speaker John Bercow is not leaving Parliament without yelling "order!" just a few more times. Several of those directives came on Monday as the speaker tried to preside over the latest Brexit tête-à-tête between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Tensions are getting extremely high now that the UK is about two months out from the latest official date when it will finally separate from the European Union. Parliament is still without a deal, having rejected former Prime Minister Theresa May's agreement with Brussels an historic three times. Meaning, a no-deal Brexit...

'In recent weeks I’ve been torn between family loyalty and the national interest,' Jo Johnson wrote. Jo is opposed to a no-deal Brexit. In a surprising move, Boris Johnson's younger brother Jo Johnson announced on Thursday that he is resigning from his positions as Tory MP and minister in what The Guardian called "an extraordinary blow" to Boris Johnson's...

More than $4bn has been pulled from UK equity funds since Theresa May announced her decision to step down as Britain’s prime minister as fears mount that the UK is heading for a no-deal Brexit under her successor, Boris Johnson. Investors have withdrawn $4.2bn from UK equity funds since late May, according to EPFR, a data provider. Outflows since the Brexit referendum in 2016 have climbed to $29.7bn. Luke Ellis, chief executive of Man Group, the UK-listed hedge fund manager, said investors had put the UK into the “too hard to think about basket”. Neil Dwane, global strategist at Allianz Global...

WASHINGTON — The NATO alliance so far has refrained from considering the withdrawal of hundreds of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons from military bases in Europe, despite growing calls to do so by members of European governments and political figures (see GSN, April 22). Opponents had hoped to see the question discussed at a biannual meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on June 9. That did not occur, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in a telephone interview yesterday. During a classified meeting of NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group during the session, he said, German Defense Minister Peter Struck described the state...

ROME (Reuters) - Italy should consider leaving the single currency and reintroducing the lira, Welfare Minister Roberto Maroni said in a newspaper interview on Friday. Maroni, a member of the euro-skeptical Northern League party, told the Repubblica daily Italy should hold a referendum to decide whether to return to the lira, at least temporarily. He also said European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was one of those chiefly responsible for the "disaster of the euro." The euro "has proved inadequate in the face of the economic slowdown, the loss of competitiveness and the job crisis," Maroni said.